A murder trial, NHS girls’ athletic success top news in ’07

Thursday

Dec 27, 2007 at 2:00 AM

Editor’s Note: As each year winds to a close, The Inquirer and Mirror chooses the top news stories and news makers that impacted the lives of those people who call Nantucket home, be it year-round or only for a brief time. This year, we’ve published those stories in a separate, tabloid-size section included in this issue. Below, we also take a look back on a month-by-month basis at the daily fabric of island life as recorded in the pages of the I&M.

By Joshua Balling I&M Managing Editor

The year began with news that it would be at least two years before the historic Jared Coffin House Inn reopened its popular Tap Room pub and restaurant. Representatives of Nantucket Island Resorts, which owns the Broad Street hotel, said they needed to evaluate the space before deciding how to proceed with renovations.

Ieva Meidus was the first baby born on Nantucket in the new year, entering the world at 1:58 a.m. Jan. 2. The daughter of Tatjana Kolomoiceva and Egidijus Meidus, she weighed 7 pounds, 3.3 ounces and measured 20.5 inches.

The Planning Board’s three alternate members consulted with an attorney in advance of a hearing on accusations of public intoxication, poor attendance, disrupting meetings and racial bias detailed in an October 2006 letter signed by the full-time members of the board. A week later, the alternates walked out of a Planning Board meeting before the hearing could start after a shouting match with the full-time members.

County officials continued to scrutinize spending by Sheriff Richard Bretschneider, withholding payment on a number of bills and specifically questioning his attempt to pay for the phone service of the island’s State Police troopers.

Nantucket New School headmaster David Provost was named a 2007 Klingenstein Visiting Fellow at Columbia University, where he planned to study ways to keep his small private school afloat on an island with a disappearing middle class and high cost of living.

With just weeks to spare, the Nantucket Land Council raised the last of the $14 million it needed to purchase the development rights to 270 acres of environmentally-sensitive Eel Point land owned by Linda Loring.

A Barnstable Superior Court judge denied all six defense motions to suppress evidence in the murder case against Thomas Toolan, the Manhattan bank executive accused of killing Elizabeth “Beth” Lochtefeld on Nantucket in 2004. Later in the month, the trial was scheduled to begin June 4 in Nantucket Superior Court.

Nantucket Elementary School administrators announced the school was becoming overcrowded, and would possibly need to bring in portable classrooms to handle the increasing number of students.

The Board of Selectmen voted to create a four-way stop at the intersection of Surfside, Fairgrounds and South Shore roads as a traffic safety measure.

A six-month narcotics investigation dubbed “Operation Bluefish” led by Nantucket police detectives and the Cape Cod Drug Task Force resulted in the arrest of 10 island men on cocaine distribution charges and warrants issued for additional suspects.

After nearly three decades in the real estate business, Lucille Jordan sold her company, Lucille Jordan Associates, to two of her brokers, Gloria Grimshaw and David Callahan, and her good friend Joe McLaughlin. Jordan, who successfully battled tonsil cancer in the year before the sale, said she had no plans to leave the island.

A loose-knit group of island dirt bike enthusiasts were left searching for a new place to ride following the finalization of a lease by the Nantucket Hunting Association for 47 acres of property near Nantucket Memorial Airport for a shooting range.

The historic Dreamland Theater would have to be dismantled down to its bare timbers in order for its long-delayed renovation and expansion to move forward, architects told the Historic District Commission late in the month.

A report from Governor Mitt Romney’s office rated the Nantucket school system’s curriculum and instruction “poor” during a three-year audit period. The report, titled “How Is Your School District Performing? A Closer Look at Nantucket Public Schools 2002-2005,” issued by the Governor’s Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA), found Nantucket to be “needing improvement” in five of six categories. The school system was rated “satisfactory” in only the finances and budgeting category.

The Board of Selectmen adopted an 80-article warrant for the 2007 Annual Town Meeting that included proposals ranging from revisions to the town’s sewer policy, to a restructuring of the municipal government and the creation of a new harbor overlay zoning district.

An historic home on School Street was reduced to rubble after the structure collapsed on top of two builders who were lowering the house over a hole that was dug for a new basement. The two men miraculously survived the incident, climbed out of the debris, and transported themselves to Nantucket Cottage Hospital where they were treated for minor injuries and released.

The island’s new emergency mobile communications vehicle, a 24-foot box truck loaded with state-of-the-art equipment and painted an ominous black, was unveiled by the Nantucket Police Department.

As criticism of Nantucket District Court Judge W. James O’Neill reached a climax in the form of multiple petitions calling for his removal from the bench, the situation was diffused late in the month when he was appointed first justice of the Barnstable District Court.

A week later, Judge Joseph I. Macy, a presiding justice in Martha’s Vineyard, Fall River and New Bedford, was appointed the acting first justice of Nantucket District Court.

February

Plumber David Gray, Nantucket Community School director Patty Roggeveen and Nantucket Memorial Airport retiree Neville Richen took out nomination papers for one of the two seats up for election on the Board of Selectmen.

They were joined later in the month by retired banker Rick Atherton, photographer Gene Mahon and Conservation Foundation Middle Moors ranger Allen Reinhard. The race eventually became a five-way contest, with Mahon not returning his papers and incumbents Doug Bennett and Catherine Flanagan Stover choosing not to run for reelection.

Theatre Workshop of Nantucket named Jordana Fleischut its first producing director.

Two island men – Steve McCarthy, 25; and Lucas Honeycutt, 27; were rescued by members of Coast Guard Station Brant Point after their six-foot dinghy capsized in The Creeks, leaving them stranded and wet in below-freezing temperatures.

Proponents of the Sconset beach nourishment project indicated they would be willing to reimburse commercial and charter fishermen for any financial losses they might incur during the dredging and dumping of sand along the Sconset bluff.

School officials moved quickly to provide grief counseling for students, faculty and friends mourning the death of 15-year-old Vaughn Mitchell Peterson, who took his own life Feb. 3.

Lucille Giddings, who led Nantucket Cottage Hospital for 11 years, announced plans to retire as its president and chief executive officer by fall.

Quentin the Quahog squirted to the left Feb. 2, indicating six more weeks of winter. The tasty mollusk was then eaten by harbormaster Dave Fronzuto.

After streaking to a 9-0 start, the girls varsity basketball team saw its undefeated record snapped by Cohasset 51-42.

The public safety complex proposed for the town’s Fairgrounds Road property could come with a price tag of $31.6 million, according to an estimate submitted by the town’s consultant on the project.

Schools superintendent Robert Pellicone was told to “slow down” during his mid-year evaluation by some members of the School Committee because teachers were not fully on board with the changes he was proposing, including a suggestion that he wanted to make the school budget “lean and mean” and proposing a hiring freeze.

The boys and girls varsity basketball teams both clinched Lighthouse Conference titles by the second week of the month.

Low-cost airline JetBlue announced plans to offer seasonal round-trip service between Nantucket and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City with fares ranging from $79 to $279 each way. Delta announced similar plans in late March.

In other aviation-related news, Island Airlines founder Bill McGrath sold his successful air taxi service to three long-time friends and employees: Island Air president Scott LaForge and Cape Cod residents Brent Hanley and Ed Zeglen. McGrath said he would, however, continue to own the airline’s eight planes and its hangars, leasing them to the three new owners.

The Board of Selectmen voted to restrict The Muse nightclub’s entertainment license by banning all live music, and prohibiting entertainment, including any amplified music, after 11 p.m., to address neighbors’ concerns about noise, trash, excessive lighting and violence. Three weeks later, Muse owner Michael O’Reilly put the popular nightclub on the market for $7 million. The license was reinstated in late April.

Town Government Study Committee recommendations to convert the Historic District Commission, Planning Board and Shellfish Harbor Advisory Board from elected to appointed bodies were met with skepticism at their first public discussion late in the month.

Shellfish warden Dwayne Dougan was honored by Harbormaster Dave Fronzuto and the Board of Selectmen for his rescue of scalloper Ted Connors from the frigid waters of Nantucket Harbor.

Angela Paterson was named tournament MVP for her play during the girls varsity basketball team’s two victories in the Island Invitational. With the tournament victory, the team finished the regular season 16-3 and headed into the playoffs on a high note.

The Nantucket Atheneum team won the fifth annual Nantucket Spelling Bee to benefit the Friends of the Nantucket Public Schools. Kasia Baker, Maggie Head and Maureen Beck spelled “pendeloque” correctly to take the title for the library.

March

During a weekly Selectmen’s meeting, Health Department director Richard Ray said he would request that the board suspend the liquor and entertainment licenses of The Chicken Box and The Muse nightclubs if they did not bring their smoking decks into compliance with state law by June.

The most successful season in Whaler boys basketball history came to an end as the varsity team was upset 64-37 by visiting Westport in the quarterfinal round of the Division IV South Sectional tournament.

Augie Ramos, a former selectman of Cape Verdean descent, was honored by the Nantucket High School Diversity Club during its Black History assembly for a lifetime of leadership and service to the island.

New York real estate developer and Nantucket AIDS Network board member Steven Green was sentenced in a Florida federal court to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay $4.1 million in restitution after pleading guilty to tax evasion and fraud charges.

Canadian financier and long-time summer visitor Gerald Schwartz submitted a plan to the Historic District Commission to build eight new dwellings and move four others on the nine-acre property near Surfside Beach he purchased in 2006. As 2007 wound to a close, excavation and construction on the former “Sandhill” estate were still underway.

After initially refusing to commit any money to the town’s proposed public safety facility off Fairgrounds Road, Sheriff Richard Bretschneider indicated in writing he would contribute $1 million toward the project. The money, he wrote in a letter to town administrator Libby Gibson, was intended to purchase central dispatching equipment.

The girls varsity basketball team made an historic run through the playoffs, beating Hull 52-49 in the Div. IV South Sectional playoffs before falling to top-seed Sacred Heart 45-31 in the championship game. The season was the most successful in school basketball history, as the girls finished with a 20-4 record.

Three members of the Finance Committee drafted a stern letter to the Board of Selectmen in response to an incident that occurred after a meeting in which Michael Kopko expressed his displeasure with their votes. Tim Soverino, Matt Mulcahy and Rick Ulmer, the three FinCom members who signed the letter, wrote that Kopko “intimated that we would not receive his support when it came time for our reappointments to the Finance Committee,” because he disagreed with their recent votes.

In an effort to curb noise complaints from early morning flights, the Nantucket Memorial Airport Commission announced that it would begin awarding financial incentives to the three air taxis who provide service to the island.

The Steamship Authority unveiled its new fast ferry, the $9.7 million Iyanough. The sleek 154-foot catamaran, built by Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding of Somerset, Mass., replaced the trouble-plagued Flying Cloud. At year’s end, it had only missed four trips due to mechanical problems.

Lauren Gritzke, a 2003 graduate of Nantucket High School and a senior at Wellesley College, was awarded a United States Department of State Fulbright Scholarship to spend an academic year teaching English in Korea. Gritzke was the first Nantucket High School graduate in the program’s 61-year history to receive the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship while still a student.

Also honored in March was Nantucket High School teacher Bob Buccino, chosen as a “Teacher of Excellence” by the Massachusetts Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (MRAEF), the only culinary arts teacher in the state to be so honored.

After hearing concerns from seasonal residents about a proposal to grow oysters off Pimney’s Point in Nantucket Harbor, the applicant, Robert Garrison, decided to withdraw his request for a license from the Board of Selectmen to allow for further study of the site.

After four decades as one of the anchors of the island’s real estate sales industry, Denby Real Estate decided to head in a new direction. The North Water Street company, owned by the Ranney family for the past 23 years and Dick and Barbara Denby before that, announced plans to transition away from sales and listings to concentrate almost exclusively on consultation, appraisals and referrals.

In other business news, Ron and Colleen Suhanosky, the owners of Sfoglia trattoria on Pleasant Street and Sfoglia NYC in Manhattan, announced plans to open an Italian specialty market in the former Fahey & Fromagerie after agreeing to purchase the property with a group of investors for an undisclosed price.

For the second time in six months, work on the renovation of the Point Breeze Hotel was halted by the Building Department for work being performed outside of the scope of the permits.

Nantucket County Sheriff Richard Bretschneider was fined $1,500 by the state Ethics Commission for violating the Massachusetts conflict of interest law. The ethics commission ruled that Bretschneider used his position of authority to further his personal interest in purchasing shares of a property on Cherry Street.

School officials announced that eight teachers would be receiving pink slips on or before April 1 as part of an effort to make sure educators in the district were properly licensed. Paul Bixby, Ms. Santos Rubbish Removal, was named 2007’s Ms. Mantucket in the annual fundraiser for the humanitarian aid group Nantucket Students for Guatemala.

After serving just six months as an alternate on the Planning Board, Jason Flanagan submitted his resignation via e-mail to the planning director with no explanation as to why. That e-mail was followed shortly by a letter to the Board of Selectmen expounding on his reasons, which centered around the often public discord between the regular and alternate members of the Planning Board in the preceding months.

The commercial scalloping season ended March 31 with just 3,860 bushels harvested by island fishermen, the lowest total since the Marine Department began keeping track of the catch in 1976.

April

Allen Reinhard and Patty Roggeveen were elected to seats on the Board of Selectmen in the 2007 Annual Town Election. In the only other contested race, incumbent Historic District Commission members John McLaughlin and Linda Williams were reelected.

The attorney representing accused murderer Thomas Toolan said he would argue an insanity defense when his client went to trial June 4.

A prescribed burn being conducted by the Nantucket Heathlands Partnership on Conservation Foundation property flared out of control April 1, burning approximately 75 acres in the middle moors near Altar Rock. Mainland help was called in, but by the time it arrived, the fire was largely under control and completely extinguished by rain that began to fall late in the day. In the wake of the blaze, the Land Bank suspended controlled-burn activity on its properties, pending a review of the circumstances that led to the previous week’s fire.

Less than six months after signing a $130,000 annual contract with a housing allowance, superintendent of schools Robert Pellicone was given a 5.5 percent raise by the School Committee.

Town Meeting voters overwhelmingly rejected the Town Government Study Committee’s most controversial proposals, defeating articles that would have changed the Planning Board, Historic District Commission and Shellfish Harbor Advisory Board from elected to appointed positions. An article that would have prohibited full-time town employees from serving on the Board of Selectmen was more narrowly defeated, and a proposal authorizing the town administrator to appoint members of several advisory committees was also rejected.

Voters also extended a a ban on the construction of docks and piers in island waters one year.

Despite a cooling real estate market, property values continued to rise, leading to a drop in the tax rate and a total property valuation of $20.8 billion, making Nantucket the fourth most valuable community in the commonwealth behind only Boston, Cambridge and Newton.

The Great Harbor Yacht Club announced plans to buy the Nantucket Tennis and Swim Club off Nobadeer Farm Road as an extension of its facility under construction on the waterfront off the Washington Street Extension.

Christopher Ray joined an elite group of men including astronaut Neil Armstrong, president Gerald Ford and billionaire H. Ross Perot when he took the oath of Eagle Scout.

An early spring nor’easter that drenched the Northeast over Patriots Day weekend swept across the island with minimal effect, but the pounding surf that followed in its wake unleashed its fury a day later. Wind gusts in excess of 55 mph felled the stately elm tree in front of the Jared Coffin House on Broad Street, and rough seas along the southern and eastern shores toppled a Sheep Pond Home into the surf and cut off the tip of Smith’s Point.

After months of uncertainty, Nantucket Memorial Airport officials received the good news that they would receive nearly $12 million in state funding to help cover the $25 million cost of renovating and expanding the airport terminal.

A new security system – including a metal detector – was installed on the second floor of the Town and County Building in order to more adequately protect the court facilities located there.

The Egan Maritime Foundation announced plans to build a 2,000-square-foot addition onto the west and south sides of the Life-Saving Museum, which opened in 1972 off Polpis Road and resembles the life-saving stations that dotted the island’s shores in the late 19th century.

A proposal to license long-term rental properties and ferret out slumlords was met with skepticism by some island real estate agents, especially when health inspector Richard Ray conceded it would likely reduce the number of year-round rentals and negatively impact island businesses.

The island reeled from the news that David Halberstam, 73, a modern-day legend in journalism, prolific author of over 20 books and summer resident for nearly 40 years, had been killed in a Menlo Park, Calif. car accident April 23.

Sheila Lucey, retiring senior chief of Coast Guard Station Brant Point, was hired as the town’s deputy harbormaster. Lucey retired during a change of command ceremony May 4 and was replaced by Terrill “T.J.” Malvesti.

Whitney Butler and Tiffani Montijo were named top 40 finalists for the 2007 National Cheerleader of the Year Scholarship Competition.

May

Nantucket Elementary School principal Paul Koulouris told the School Committee he planned to step down when his contract expired at the end of the school year. After just one year on the job, Kouloouris left to take a college teaching position in Vermont.

An early-morning house fire on Hummock Pond Road claimed the life of Peter Miller, 80, and destroyed most of the structure before firefighters could extinguish the blaze. It was the first fatal fire on Nantucket in more than 20 years.

Anna Burnham and Samantha Pillion were named the recipients of the 2007 Nantucket Golf Club Foundation scholarships, earning four years of tuition-free education at the college or university of their choice.

Pauline Proch, outreach coordinator for the Community Network for Children, received an “Unsung Heroine Award” May 16 from the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women.

Chris Getoor, a fifth-grade ecology teacher at the Nantucket New School, received an “Excellence in Environmental Education” award from Ian Bowles, head of the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, for a monarch butterfly program he was working on with his students.

A World War II-era hand grenade discovered by a landscaper in Sconset was destroyed by members of the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad. The landscaper, who uncovered the grenade at a private residence, took the ordnance to the police station on South Water Street, which officers said was unnecessary and dangerous.

Nantucket High School graduate Andrew Maury announced plans to move his Nantucket Brand clothing business into the historic two-story brick building at the corner of Main and Federal streets, the former long-time home of Tonkin’s Antiques, which he had purchased with help from his parents, Larry and Michelle.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital began preparing for a baby boom, as doctors said they expected at least 30 births in June, a significant increase over the usual number of babies born at the hospital in a given month.

Mary Glowacki and John McLaughlin were named Senior Citizens of the Year for 2007 by the Nantucket Council on Aging.

Investigators from the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents visited the island to make sure business owners were in compliance with state-mandated workers’ compensation laws. In all, 22 businesses were issued stop-work orders during the sweep, with taxis accounting for half of the violations. Other businesses included six contracting companies, two retail businesses, two landscaping companies and one trucking company The Lady Whalers softball team improved its record to 12-0, including a no-hitter and a perfect game in victories over Provincetown, New Testament and Sacred Heart. Two weeks later, they completed a perfect regular season, heading into the playoffs with an 18-0 record.

Julia Wendelken and David Huberman were crowned queen and king of the 2007 Junior Prom at the Sconset Casino, the first time the event had been held there.

Town leaders proposed a downtown parking garage – a two- or three-level structure that could accommodate up to 300 vehicles – for the waterfront property behind the Grand Union supermarket and the Harbor Fuel tank farm owned by utility conglomerate National Grid.

The Board of Selectmen announced plans to investigate the installation of one or more windmills at the Madaket landfill in order to generate enough electricity to power its solid waste recycling, composting and disposal operation.

Former Selectman Arthur Desrocher was presented with an honorary degree from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, just three months after he stepped down from its board of directors after 13 years.

A Safe Place announced that Meg Hunter, its long-time executive director, would step down June 30 during a change in administration at the island’s domestic violence and assault advocacy and awareness organization.

June

Former Selectman Finn Murphy was voted back onto the Airport Commission after several years away from the group, and Tim Soverino, also a former selectman, was voted off the Finance Committee after serving one term, during the Board of Selectmen’s annual appointments.

The grind of jury selection consumed the first three days of the Thomas Toolan murder trial in Nantucket Superior Court, as defense attorney Kevin Reddington squared off with prosecutor Brian Glenny over a motion to move the proceedings off-island. The trial stayed on Nantucket, and lasted two weeks, with the jury returning a guilty verdict in just under four hours July 21. Toolan, a former Manhattan bank executive, was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole for stabbing Beth Lochtefeld to death in 2004.

Islanders narrowly approved $4.4 million in override spending as just 8 percent of registered voters headed to the polls. The debt-exclusion override funded a number of high-priced capital expenditures including a new fire truck and an addition to the Marine and Coastal Resources Building, and added an estimated $14.42 to the 2008 tax bill of a Nantucket home valued at $1 million.

Nantucket High School senior Erin Lindsay won four academic achievement awards as the school year wound to a close, the most of any graduating senior. Lindsay was also named the class of 2007’s Distinguished Female Athlete by the U.S. Marine Corps.

A week later, the 97 members of the Nantucket High School Class of 2007 graduated during ceremonies in the Mary P. Walker Auditorium. More than $550,000 in scholarship money was handed out to just over half the class.

The top-seeded Lady Whalers softball team beat Provincetown in the quarterfinals of the South Sectional state tournament and ran its record to 19-0 before seeing its perfect season end in the sectional semifinals with a 7-1 loss to Diman.

Following a thrilling come-from-behind overtime victory over Norwell in the first round of the Division III East playoffs, the boys lacrosse team fell hard to Scituate, 15-3 in the quarterfinals, and in the baseball postseason, the Whalers lost 8-4 to Bristol-Plymouth in the preliminary round.

Christine Silverstein announced plans to step down in the fall as executive director of Sustainable Nantucket to finish writing a book which dealt with the death of her husband Robert, a Nantucket police officer who died suddenly of a heart attack 10 years ago.

“Yes, the Dreamland is for sale.” That was the answer of Dreamland Theater owner Haim Zahavi in response to a question about the fate of the historic movie house on South Water Street, whose screen had been dark since two summers ago. The comments came on the same day copies of a petition urging the town to purchase the theater began popping up around the island.

A week later, island restaurant owner Rick Ulmer said he had agreed to purchase the Dreamland and hoped to close the deal in the next 45 days.

Cape Air/Nantucket Airlines voluntarily decided to suspend all flights between Nantucket and Hyannis as a precautionary measure after a series of engine failures occurred on its Cessna 402C twin-engine aircraft over a three-week period.

Father Paul Caron celebrated his last Mass as pastor of St. Mary’s Our Lady of the Isle Sunday, June 24 before taking on his new assignment as pastor of St. Rita’s in Marion, Mass.

Nantucket police and federal agents swept across the island in a highly-coordinated early-morning immigration raid that netted 18 people, almost all with criminal histories. The detainees were turned over to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and were transported by Coast Guard buoy tender to Woods Hole for processing.

Anne Phaneuf and Nina Slade were the first teachers to receive the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. Each teacher received $15,000 and was selected from an applicant pool of 29 candidates.

A new player emerged in the region’s high-stakes alternative-energy game: Natural Currents, LLC, a New York-based company, filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin investigating the installation of a “tidal energy plant” in the waters west of Nantucket.

July

For the second time in a month, the “candidate of choice” withdrew before accepting the job as the new principal of Cyrus Peirce middle school. George Benzie, a vice principal at the 850-student Memorial Middle School in Bellingham, Mass., joined Carolyn Wilson, an assistant high school principal in Mequon, Wis., in saying “no thanks” to the top administrative job at the middle school.

Five Nantucket women – Ella Flinn, Teal Diane Beal, Amanda Sue Ciarmataro, Nadine A. Haye, Mary Patton and Sarah Elizabeth Patton – were the first to graduate from the Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program offered by the Nantucket Community School as a way to attract and retain qualified nurses for the island’s hospital and elder-care facilities.

A record-high 635 runners and walkers kicked off the Fourth of July holiday by participating in the 17th annual Firecracker 5K. Matt Flavin, a member of the United States Navy stationed in Coronado, Calif., won the event, and Lory Gray was the first woman to cross the line.

The town’s newest post office finally opened in front of the roundabout at the intersection of Pleasant Street, Sparks Avenue and Hooper Farm Road, and except for some complaints about traffic flow, reviews were generally positive.

After months of delays attributed to a complete interior renovation, Alice’s Restaurant opened at Nantucket Memorial Airport.

After seven years at the helm of Pacific National Bank, Joel Brown retired from his post as president.

Four people were pulled out of the water by members of the Nantucket Police Department and lifeguards on south shore beaches July 12 as strong rip currents challenged even experienced swimmers. Eight more swimmers were rescued over the next week as the dangerous rips refused to subside.

After a disappointing first six months of 2007, including one week in February when not a single property changed hands, the island’s real estate market showed signs of improving in the second half of the year, brokers said.

A film crew for Martha Stewart’s “Living” television show visited the island to film lightship basket-maker Michael Kane in his Sparks Avenue shop. The episode aired in the fall.

One of islander Paul Michetti’s paintings – two deer in silhouette – won the grand prize in the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Archery & Primitive Firearms stamp contest and will be featured on the $5.10 stamps required to hunt with bow and arrow and black-powder guns in Massachusetts.

After an extensive search, the board of directors of the Linda Loring Nature Foundation named former Maria Mitchell Association head Kathryn “Kitty” Pochman its executive director.

A National Guard helicopter scoured the island for outdoor marijuana plants as part of an annual joint law enforcement operation. The search led to the seizure of about 50 pot plants from various locations around Nantucket.

August

The Dreamland Theater remained for sale, as after passionate debate at a Special Town Meeting regarding its possible acquisition by the town, the proposal failed to garner enough votes to move forward.

STM voters did, however, narrowly approve the municipal purchase of the Island Spirits package store for use as a downtown transit center.

Once scarce to the area, seals began making a comeback in the waters surrounding Nantucket, coming in closer and closer contact with humans on boats and on the beach and worrying marine officials about the potentially dangerous interactions.

An undercover police operation resulted in the arrest of 11 men on charges of purchasing liquor for underage individuals at island package stores. In what was dubbed “Operation Shoulder Tap,” three underage summer special police officers were given marked bills and stood outside liquor stores asking customers to purchase alcohol for them.

A house on Midland Avenue in Madaket was completely destroyed in an early morning fire. A firefighter who lives in the area woke up

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